Donald Trump has notched up another big win in the race to become the Republican Party’s candidate for president in this year’s US election.  

And – as was widely expected – it was a crushing defeat. 

The Associated Press called the result in the South Carolina primary just seconds after polling stations closed.

It means Trump has smashed his only remaining competitor, Nikki Haley, in the state where she was once governor.

It’s his fourth big win from four state races, after successes in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada (where Haley refused to participate in what she said was an unfair primary). 

But Haley says she’s not giving up.

Trump gave a much happier victory speech than last time he beat Haley 

The former president took to the podium less than five minutes after polls closed, declaring he’d had “an even bigger win than anticipated”. 

Nobody had been anticipating any real contest though. Polls in recent days put the Trump vote at about 60 per cent, compared to about 30 per cent for Haley. (Counting continues, but it looks like she’s won closer to 40 per cent of the vote).

Last time Trump beat Haley, in New Hampshire, his victory speech was an angry one.

She’d given an optimistic speech before he had even spoken. He reacted with an angry outburst, saying: “Who the hell was the impostor that went up on the stage, that went before, and claimed victory?”  

Tonight, he was in a much better mood. He barely mentioned Haley, and the bulk of his speech was a thank-you list. 

“I have never seen the Republican Party so unified as it is right now,” he told supporters at his official function. 

He also spoke confidently about his prospects in the remaining state races, and the general election in November, where he looks all but certain to take on president Joe Biden: 

“We’re going to be up here on November 5, and we’re going to look at Joe Biden, and we’re gonna look him right in the eye. He’s destroying our country and we’re gonna say, ‘Joe, you’re fired. Get out. Get out, Joe. You’re fired’.” 

Haley stepped up her attacks on Trump – but the strategy didn’t work 

All through the primary season, most of Trump’s Republican challengers have been reluctant to criticise the former president’s character or his past behaviour.  

For a good while, Nikki Haley was no exception. She’s always praised Trump’s stint in the White House, calling him the “right president at the right time”.

Initially, her main campaign message seemed to be that she was running against Trump for fear he’d lose against Biden.

But in South Carolina, she declared she “felt no need to kiss the ring” and she had “no fear of Trump’s retribution”. And so she sharpened her criticisms. 

More than once, she described Trump as “unhinged”. She called him a “bully” who is “getting meaner and more offensive by the day”. And she attacked him as “obsessed with himself”. 

With her husband currently deployed in Africa with the National Guard, Haley also took Trump to task for his apparent disdain for members of the military.

Citing reports Trump once labelled soldiers who died as “suckers” and “losers”, she said: 

“He’s never been near a uniform. He’s never had to sleep on the ground. The closest he’s ever been to harm’s way is if a golf ball happens to hit him on the golf course.” 

Ultimately, the attack strategy hasn’t worked.

But she was still all smiles when she addressed supporters after her loss, vowing to stay in the race to prevent “a Soviet-style election with only one candidate”.

“We can’t afford four more years of Biden’s failures, or Trump’s lack of focus,” she said, going on to tell her supporter function: “The world is on fire. War is spreading further every day.”

Ex-governor Haley’s ‘sweet’ home state delivered a resounding blow

The southern state of South Carolina is Nikki Haley’s home turf. She served as its governor from 2011 to 2017.

She’s spent the past weeks crisscrossing her home state onboard her campaign bus. Stops included her childhood town and the area she lives in now, touting her achievements in the state.

But as the primary result has proven, familiarity doesn’t always equate to popularity. Her home-ground loss raises the question: If she can’t win here, where can she?

For some, her history as the state’s two-term governor – and her decision to quit after Donald Trump offered to make her ambassador to the UN – counted against her.

Some locals say she’s failed to nurture her support base since leaving the governor’s office. 

Allen Olsen, a local Tea Party leader who endorsed Haley in 2011, said many South Carolina conservatives felt she had deserted the state’s party for national politics. “We didn’t abandon her. She abandoned us,” he told Politico.

In the years since Haley left the governor’s mansion, South Carolina has became the fastest growing state in the country, attracting hundreds of thousands of new residents.  

Those newcomers came to the state with no experience of Haley’s leadership – and an apparent affection for Trump.

Trump heaped praise on former rival – now seen as a likely running mate

South Carolina Senator Tim Scott was appointed to his position by Nikki Haley. 

In 2012, after what she called a search for a “fighter”, she handed him the role to fill a vacancy created by a retirement.